Stripped Down: Lesbian Sex Stories

A good erotica anthology is like a sexy "Choose Your Own Adventure" story. It should be ripe with plots twists and hidden dangers around every corner with characters ambiguous enough for the reader slip inside their skin for a few pages. Editor Tristan Taormino does not disappoint. "Stripped Down: Lesbian Sex Stories" features short stories from well-known writers of lesbian erotica that will tantalize and tickle even the most stoic of readers.

These stories are raw. A reader expecting saccharine professions of love dripping with eternal devotion should look elsewhere or be shocked. Some of these stories are not for the faint of heart - especially if you view The Church as sacred and an entity worth preserving in a thick layer of dogmatic innocence. If that is the case, this collection is not for you - unless you like that sort of thing. Then by all means read away!

All of the characters depicted in this collection are consenting adults that find pleasure beyond the pain that they inflict or receive. Taormino explains in her foreword that "these stories strip down way past naked to show us what we can discover about ourselves through our sexual encounters." To translate: how much dynamic tension can you handle as a Fantasizer? These stories explore the pleasure/pain and good/evil dichotomies. The boundaries between what constitutes harm and healing are blurred. So if the heroine is unsure of her pleasure then where does that leave a sympathetic reader? Hopefully, it leads the reader to self-realization... Or a jolly good time.

Despite the BDSM leanings, "Stripped Down" is about happy dyke endeavoring to have a happy time in ways that make them very, very happy. It’s well written erotica for those of us who like to play dirty wherever we are - whether it’s in a Nevada Trailer-park Brothel or in the Donna Reed-esque home of a dominatrix. Taormino says that the collection focuses on relationships; the relationship we have with our sexual selves and our sexual partners. For this reason, it could be a healthy exercise in psychotherapy to read this collection with a willing friend.

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